PARADISE LOST [with] L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO by Milton, John - 1833

London: Charles Tilt, 1833. (L'Allegro is London: W. Kent, 1859). (L'Allegro is London: W. Kent, 1859). Expanded to two volumes and extra-illustrated. The supplied title pages dated 1864. Quarto. 373p. Illustrated by John Martin with 24 mezzotints. L'Allegro illustrated with 30 steel etchings by Birket Foster (unpaged). Bound in full maroon morocco with marbled endpapers, a.e.g., the spines with gilt titles and densely gilt panels, the covers with multiple gilt frames and corner pieces, fancy dentelles. There are 146 extra illustrations including 30 portraits of Milton, and 111 plates from other editions, including the folding plates after J. E. Medina from the 1688 edition, the plates after James Gwin from the 1724, &c., &c. This book was one of the great publishing enterprises of the age. It appeared in eight different editions, this the first small plate edition. The [Martin] images are vivid with striking contrasts of white on black. Gordon Ray, The Illustrator and The Book in England. #69.
Reynolds. Birket Foster, no. 28.